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So Christmas in Guatemala is pretty amazing, I think that even though they don´t have snow, or much of Santa, I would say they outdo us in celebration. The custom here is called MediaNoche, which means midnight, and everyone cooks this big dinner and waits up till midnight when fireworks from every house explode simultaneously. It´s cool enough to see big fireworks from the end of a town pier or roof of the Muni, but to see them from every street corner and roof of every house blew my mind. It´s got to be yet again the most dangerous thing of life, but never the less the 10 year olds and myself put things ablaze into the air 5 feet from telephone poles and other electric or flamable things in the street.
I look forward to repeating this for New Years as well.
As far as the tradition goes, I went to a Catholic Church for the night service with Doña Dora and at midnight they light incense and put the baby Jesus in their nativity scenes.
Oh! and the best part was the next day when Diego came by to see this parade of people dressed in different animal costumes do a line dance in the street. It was awesome, there were two GIANT panda costumes twice as big as the people inside, and kids in little dog costumes too, costumes of Gizmo, Sonic the Hedgehog, Skunks, a Furby, Chipmunks, Reindeer, and more. Quite an eclectic mix, and they all had these huge costume heads on. My favorite was the Lion from Robinhood (the King from the cartoon version) It was either a kid inside or a very small person, who danced like there was no end yet obviously could not see out of the extremely large costume head they had on and had to look around confused after bumping into the guy infront and behind in the line formation, fix his head back, and continue dancing like nothing happened. I can´t explain it, I wish I had video, and I definately had a better time watching this than Diego did.
Happy New Year to everyone, Peace,
Robin

My very own Christmas

So I'm here in San Bartolo where it feels much more like Christmas as it's freezing... Got to go to the Peace Corp office and pick up a package from over a month ago and get some stuff straight with work. Friday was the last day of work until the new year at my Muni, and we had a Convivio that night which is basically a Chirstmas party for everyone who works for the Municipial. I have a secret santa which I bought a sombrero for, and recieved much needed bowls and glasses from my SS as well. There was lots of singing to Ranchero music, a mariachi band, games, speeches, and food. The next day on Saturday was awesome. I woke up to my mailman calling me from outside my house with a package (shout out goes to Suzy Smith) and I made breakfast and opened the santa box. After that I washed all my sheets and underwear on my concrete pila, which isn't so exiciting as much as it is just an accomplishment. Around lunch Gabriel and Tia Neldy came by and we cooked lunch and hung out together. Then Saturday night I had my Christmas, I put on a holiday cd, the pajamas from my grandmae, and sat in front of my tree to open the gifts my family had sent. I have to say that for being alone, it really was a great time. I tried out everything and just had a nice time celebrating in my own way. I am glad to be here in San Bartolo with my Guatemalan family, but I just needed to have a little american celebration of my own. Thanks again for everyone who has sent a gift, card, email, phone call, or anything else. Feliz Navidad and Happy New Year.
Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men (and women)
Robin

Christmas is coming..

All the other volunteers from Spain, Austria, and Italy are leaving for Christmas, some are returning but I remain, haha. Sounds grim, but I hope it´s not that bad. The wonderful packages my family has sent me help so much and before they left the Spanish Volunteers bought me a small fake christmas tree and covered it in blue lights that flash randomly. I put my presents under it and pasted the Christmas cards on the wall above it. I couldn´t wait and I already opened a package that was a pair of very soft pajamas from my grandmae.
She also sent homemade Snickerdoodles! which I am taking with me to our Bienvenidos party this weekend so that I don´t eat them all at one time by myself. I did already eat 2 and they are delicious. I do have two Christmas CDs, and one more with the NOW! Christmas that my mom sent, so I guess it is starting to feel like that time of the year although the weather still throws me off a little. I miss everyone back home, and my advice is to spend the holidays with your family because I can´t.
Peace, Love,
Robin

Confused once again...

So I´ve given into the fact that I never know whats going on here, a lot of which I´ll blame on my lack of Spanish, but sometimes I think they just don´t tell me as if I´m magically going to guess what were doing... So Monday I had on my schedule that we were doing something with the women´s office. I knew we were going somewhere, which I assumed to be an Aldea (small rural community) which I thought was to build a playground because they had showed me pictures of this other playground they built in another Aldea. I knew to bring tennis shoes and jeans/tshirt attire. What I didn´t know was that we were actually going to a camp called La Tule to do team building activities with kids from the 4 surrounding areas for the next 2 days. This involved crawling under peoples legs, the human knot, trying to stand 19 people on a platform the size of a pizza box while being sprayed with a water hose, climbing a whole team over a 20 ft wall, climbing a jacobs ladder while being yelled at, crawling like a spider across a football field at 6am, and other emberrassing yet completely amazing games. I was on the Yellow team, which won 2nd place (there were 3 teams and seriously the Red team cheated... :P). It was a ton of fun even though the only things I brought with me were toilet paper, a newspaper, and snack food because I didn´t know what was going on. My entire body is sore, and a I have a basketball game tonight against Chiquimula, wish us luck!

Dancing with the Mayor

So this last Thursday was the lighting of the town Chirstmas tree. It was a huge event with a Ranchero band called Los Tigres Del Oriente, and big shots from the national government were there, prizes were given out, and one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen. Since they have no regulations, anything goes as far as explosions, lights, smoke, (Adam Parker would love it here) and when they shoot them off from the 1st story roof of the building your right next to you have a great (yet slightly dangerous) view. So at this festival I was hanging out with my Muni co-workers by the stage and Sandra (my boss in the Women's office) calls me over and then proceeds to push me out on stage to dance in front of all of Jocotan with the Mayor! So as if I'm not constantly being watched already, lets just stick here on stage and watch as I attempt to dance to music I've never heard in my life. They all got a big kick out of it, I'm pretty sure its a past time for them to emberrass me. I should have really surprised them and just started stripping while I was up there, haha. But seriously, all in all it was a good night and I left around 11:30 with Tia Neldy but aparently it lasted until 2:30 in the morning!

Peace.

Robin

Getting anxious, and Hilary Clinton

So today I was thinking, I hope I can hold out until Christmas before I just can´t handle living so unoccupied. I´m just not that kind of person and I can blame it on American culture or some self-ambition, but I am good at being the busy person and I just don´t know how long I can hold that off. In some ways I can´t wait to get going and many of my friends and family ask me, so what are you really doing in your work, your making name tags? what else, right? But I do think it´s important to take this slowly as well, as I need their confidence and trust so for now I am meeting people still, and going to meetings, and participating but not leading. But if anyone who reads this blog knows me, they know I am a leader, but it is important that in this job I train others to be leaders because only they can solve their problems, I can really only support the efforts that they make. Anything I do on my own will disolve when I leave so stepping back from leading to being more of a council is my position here.

With that being said, I had a visit from Roberto, my Coordinator from PC, and talked about my expectations here and work, ect. There are two projects that I would really like to start up. The first is with the women´s office to make small womens groups in these Aldeas with monthly meetings on different topics, such as Signing your name, AIDS prevention, Womens Rights, Domestic Violence, ect. Because the problem is they have such limited access to education and information, especially because they can´t read and write. So maybe we can at least open up discussions about the things that are affecting their lives and get them to talk about it.

The other project is a beautification of the central park here, and starting a community group for public art about social issues. I´ve talked about this one before, and next week I have a meeting with a childrens organization thats looking to form programs for the upcoming year, so that seems hopeful.

I also just need to say again how awesome it is to have Gabriel back in the office, and just in time for Roberto´s visit too! Also I heard Hilary Clinton is the new Secretary of State, hows the reception of this in America?

Peace. Love.

Robin

He's Back

So my counterpart came back to work today, thank god. He´s already helping me out and gives me someone to talk to at least. Maybe I can get a project off the ground by February...
For those who also asked what to send, send pictures and CDs or DVDs, honestly what kind of music doesn´t much matter, because I can´t get any of it here so as long as it´s in english your good. Burn some music from your collection or look down the music isle for one with a cool cover.
I have some new pictures of the town and my house (I´m borrowing the office camera), hopefully I´ll get a chance to put them up this weekend so keep on the lookout. Friday I´m going over to Kristy's house for indian food and this weekend is the Ferria of Camotan which aparently has motorcross at it, awesome.
Peace. Love.
Robin

December 1st

December 1st and it´s probably about 90 degrees out. Thanksgiving went well although I had some travel hold ups and got there after dinner, but cold turkey and nachos are definitely a good combo. The lake was beautiful, and hopefully someone will send me their pictures so I can pass them on since I no longer carry a camera. We went kayaking and to the markets and hiking, and the weather there is cooler so it actually felt like November. But getting back home I have a lot to do today as far as errands and all are, I need to go to the bank, pay my electric bill, buy my food for the week at the market, buy some more pure water, ect. Just trying to give an idea of the kind of day I have. For lunch I eat at this commodore which is a small restaurant with two options each day normally one beef and one chicken, but always good no matter what you order. It kind of reminds me of a Guatemalan Olga´s (a restaurant in CB).

Peace, Love,
Robin

Tuesday

I am soooo excited to be getting out of here for Thanksgiving. I can´t wait to see my friends and each a bunch of turkey and sit by a beautiful lake for a couple days reading a book and chatting it up about all our different experiences. Last night my neighbor and I bonded by painting our nails, watching some aweful scary movie with zombies, and then doing the dance excercise DVD my grandmae sent me. Overall a pretty good night, and this morning I picked up my laundry and hung it up with Amarillo. Work today has been pretty boring, but the good thing is that I went and got the wood order for my shelves and tables and took it to the carpenter so at least now that is underway. The days go by slowly but overall the time has flown, I can´t believe it´s already Thanksgiving since I graduated and all. The summer flew by, probably because it was so great. I´m now reading a new book, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (I think that´s the title), recommended by a CB book club and Oprah. The mute in it interests me the most. Hope everyones thanksgiving is good!
Peace, Love,
Robin

Today is the International Day of No Violence Against Women, so this morning we had an activity at a church salon to talk about womens violence and there were performances from the Casa de Cultura in San Juan Hermita. Each time you do any kind of group meeting or activity it is required that you bring food and refreshment for the entire group, and if it lasts until lunch you have to bring that too. It really makes for an expensive meeting, but on the other hand it´s the only way so many people would ever show up. This has been instilled in them from the NGOs and govt. programs that if you just sit through this meeting or sign up for this program and go through the motions that you´ll get free stuff. It is hard to say how many the information really gets through to. I think it´s great to teach women about independence and citizen participation and AIDS awareness but at the same time I wonder, do they listen, I don´t know that I would. I do think that progress is being made, and that every time a woman steps up to be a leader in the community it affects more than we can quantify, and that I can be an example and resource for this change as well. First though we need to work on being able to sign your own name which many of these women can´t do...

Also today I met an orphan girl, that was probably the sweetest little girl you´ve ever seen and her and her sister are now being raised by one of the very leaders that these programs have aided. Her name is Amelia.

Grateful for my coffee maker.

I now have the great pleasure of being robbed in Honduras as well, maybe this is some sort of initiation, or maybe that purse was just super bad luck, or most likely I am just not as aware and careful as I need to be. At least this time they didn´t really get much, my credit cards which I cancelled, about $40, and the camera I bought in Antigua which was cheap, plastic, and the screen was completely broken because I dropped it last week. So from now on maybe I´ll just go with disposable cameras, and only carry with me what I can stuff down my underwear, haha, no seriously.
Work is going slow as always, but I´m hosting a birthday fiesta at my house on Friday for one of the Spanish volunteers so that should be good. I think I´m going to cook good ol’ fashion hamburgers and some kind of pasta salad or something. As always new recipes are appreciated.
Today is a little cold and deary, which made it especially hard to get out of bed this morning, Hopefully I´ll finally be able to buy my gas tank for my stove and maybe a hammock too. Tonight I´m meeting with a carpenter to build the furniture I designed for the house. I can not wait to get them built, Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to me if it ever works out.
As for “Into the Wild”, the more I read the more I am glad I am not on an adventure into the wild of Alaska and happy to have my $6 a day, warm weather, and coffee maker. What do you think about the shunning of American culture, unnecessary things, which for Alex included a car, a house, burning all his money and even not showering a lot of the time?

Peace and Love,
Robin

Into the Wild

<-- These are women from the Aldea Tunuco Abajo where myself and two other collegues gave a presentation on strategy planning and citizen participation. (More pics on webshots.)

We won our basketball game last night 39 to 24 against the barrio Cemeterio. I am not really that great but really you should see them. Tonight we have a game of papi futbol, which I think I am also playing in but have no experience in whatsoever. It´s something like soccer but played on the basketball court.

This morning I went for a run to the next town over, Camotán. I think I should try to do that more often. I´m still working out my schedule but I need to fit in excercise somewhere and it´s so hot here that the morning is really the best time. Now I´m supposed to be at work but my boss nor the secretary is there. I don´t really know whats going on, maybe they are punishing me for going to the conference, haha. Instead I´m at the internet cafe to do more research on making badges for the Muni. I think if I can at least do that by December I should be fairly proud of myself. Oh man... how far I have come from a firm that designs national museums to making name tags.

Honestly though the skills I am learning here are really those that can be applied in any job situation. Patience, communication, modivation, patience, comprehension, patience, initiative, more patience... haha. The nice thing is the independence, in my job and in my life. As much as the Peace Corps is our mother here, I really do feel like I get to make a lot of my own decisions in my life. Maybe it doesn´t make sense but in order to feel like I have control, I have to completely give up control. I didn´t choose where I was going, or what my job was, or who I would work with or meet, and really everything that happens here complete blindsides me, but although there is no real order I am more self-reliant and proactive in my own decisions. Well thats the thought for today at least.

I am also reading "Into the Wild" right now and think am finding inspiration through, none of this is as tough as what Alex did, except he did get to speak english the whole time...

Hora Chapin

(<---- My House)

Here there is a custom, for everything that starts at a particular time, in reality means come an hour late, "hora chapin". Right now I am in the hora chapin for my next basketball game, it was supposed to start at 7:30, but the lights in the building aren´t even on yet.

This last weekend I was super lonely, it just hits you doesn´t it. I found some other volunteers here from Spain but their spanish is even harder to understand than guatemalans! so although they are awesome, it´s still been pretty difficult. But since then I have found my neighbors to be very inviting and am really going to work on improving my relationship with them. I also found a very exotic looking black spider with spikes and bright yellow dots on its back, something out of national geographic for sure. I couldn´t kill the thing for its beauty, although I would bet it´s poisoness or something. I named it Amarillo.

I spent the last two days at a womens conference at a very beautiful hotel in Zacapa representing my women´s office because for some reason they didn´t want to go and know that I say yes to everything. Since I split my time between the womens office(OMM) and the planning office(OMP) aparently my boss in the OMP was upset that I didn´t pass this by him before hand, but honestly I wasn´t doing anything anyway, but it´s all about power and politics. Anyway, the conference was very nice and I got to meet some pretty amazing women in offices from all over this region of Guatemala, and yes even the conference was hora chapin and the tortillas were amazing.

I now have a gas stove top, but need to buy the gas tank for it. Possibly that will happen tomorrow, along with picking up my clothes which thank god get washed by this lady down the street who has three washers and does laundry during the night for about a $1 a load. Tomorrow it will hang in my garden with Amarillo to dry.

I´m really looking forward to the art supplies my family sent, I´ve been doing art recently from dried plants, which I think has been beautiful but maybe its really just dead plants...

The First Week of the rest of my life...for 2 years

I don´t even know where to begin... I want to talk about politics, and the environment, and culture, and my job, and my house, and the chuchos (dogs of the street), and so much more. I´ll start with swear-in where I was fortunate enough to see the beautiful home of the ambassador but unforunate enough to loose one of my shoes durring my turn to accept my certificate, and therefor just took them both off and carried them to the stage which made for wonderful entertainment which our guatemalan families will probably continue to talk about for the next couple years. Thanks to Marisha for letting me borrow those dangerous heels, :P (That´s me shoes in hand)

The weekend was spent in Antigua with the whole gang, and was a great way to relax and spend our last moments together before segregation insued. My first day in my site was pretty chill because I didn´t get here till about 2pm and when I went to the Muni (the city govt. office where I work) it was mysteriously closed for some Saints Day. But that was fine cause I needed to settle in and all. So the next day I wake up, walk to my first day of work with my neighbor Tia Neldy, only to find my counterpart, Gabriel, is on vacation for the next month and a half. So basically I sat there all morning reading over my materials from Peace Corp and greeting people as they walked in and out of the Muni. But through my greetings I met a council member named Alberto who speaks english and saved me from complete boredom. Through him I now have a tv (but no cable) and a new project to work on. Apparently they want to design a new central park and market and want me to design it. We´ll see what really comes of this because I have a feeling that this is one of those things you talk about for like 5 years before anything actually happens. But I´m gonna try to work with what I can. Yesterday was better, I designed identification cards for the employees so that I can learn their names and faces. I´ll be working on this for probably the next week or so. I´ve found I have more work in the Women´s office so far, as they took me today to the aldea (small rural community) El Naranjo and have many community projects in the works. We went to the aldea to talk about violence in the home and I ate lunch with the mayor, a council member (Drew, the same one from taklitu sp?) and the director of Save the Children program. The mayor is a little friendly with me... a little more than I like, but the real story is the what happened this morning. So this morning I get to the Muni and there is this guy that is always there in the lobby greeting everyone, I think he´s in charge of maintenance and cleaning... anyway he seems to think he needs to hug me everytime he sees me and this morning also hands me a piece of paper with phrases he would like me to translate for him, some of which include: Te quiero, vamos a dormir, me quieres de verdad, and more. These respectively mean something along the lines of: I want you, Lets go to bed, You really want me, ect. So ya, I ignored that for most of the day and this afternoon had to tell the guy that was unprofessional for me to translate those words and asked him who it was for because in my culture its only appropriate to says those things to your girlfriend or wife and not women in the street like I assume its probably for...

I think for now that was clear enough, but who knows what will happen. I have many communication stories, one of which is that last night I thought I was supposed to go to a basketball game to play for my barrio, San Sebastian, and I thought the lady (who I found through someone in the womens office) said she was going from 6:30 to 8. So at 6:30 nothing happened, so I figured who knows what happened and about 8pm when I was about to go to sleep she calls me and asks me where I am. I´m like, In my house... where are you? She says, I´m at the meeting, are you coming? I go, oh ya ok sure, she asks if I know where it is and I was like no, so she sent a friend to come and get me. He shows up, and I go to this meeting which ended up only being 2 blocks from my house yet I had a motor escort for it cause I can´t understand what the hells going on, and I get there half in my pajamas cause I still think were gonna play basketball, and instead ther is this whole meeting of the barrios to plan the mini-olympics of Jocotan. So now by default of going to this meeting, I´m on the council, have events to help with everynight of the week and am playing basketball and ping-pong for my barrio. The meeting lasted till 11pm and I was then asked to show my ping-pong skills at the local pool hall, which not surprisingly there is not a single female in the place. I have to say they have some hardcore ping-pong going on though, and I will be the first woman to ever compete here but sure it won´t last long.

oh... Andrew, I´m still cooking in the dirt of the driveway, but I promise you this is going to change soon, haha.

Peace and Love,

More to come later because no one wants to read a book length post online.

Robin

The bell is ringing

But I just wanted to say I'm still alive and at the PC Center for my last day of training, exciting! Our swear-in is at the ambassadors house on Friday and our host families get to come too. This week I want to carve a pumkin-like gord for nostalgia and cook chicken pot pie, recipes appreciated. There are more pictures up on websots, some are from a womens day we had in an aldea of Jocotan, others are of volunteers, check them out.
Peace. Love.
Robin

Back from Jocot@n

So the trip was amazing, pretty imtimidating at first but I have a lot to look forward to. First is my housing: I´ll be taking over the house from the last volunteer which is great because I get his frig and furniture, but there is still a lot to be done as is whenever any girl moves into a guys apartment, (sorry drew :P). The place is really beautiful, but the water is brownish and contaminated and only runs at night, which since there is a leak in the shower means it always runs at night, haha. So I have water from 7pm to 7amish, there is electricity most of the time but when it goes out who knows for how long it will be, and there are some pretty mad mosquitos too but overall everythings not too bad. Right now I have one electric burner and a firepit Drew made in the driveway, which is awesome and I´m going to girl-scout it up everyday. Seriously I want to buy a gas stove though, and start building furniture. I think that will be a good activity to work on in my down time especially the first few months while I´m still adjusting.
The climate is hot, like I said before which is great, and the people seem really nice. The Muni is pretty large and there are several people in the OMP office. My counterpart, Gabriel, seems amazing, motivated, smart, and easy to work with. They also want me to work with the Women´s office too (or OMM), which might prove to be a challenge since not everyone gets along between the two offices, but I think it will be good to work with as many people as possible.
There is a market everyday, and I can´t wait to draw there during my lunch break and bring back memories of Italy. There is a hot springs about 10 minutes away too, which we went to the last night I was there. It was really nice to go to at night, and it´s pretty low-key, no tourists, only guatemalans for the most part. I´m sure it´s not too clean and people pee in and all but it´s warm and I try not to think about those things too much here. Mail aparently will be easier to get there and I´ll post my new address soon.
The time really has flown by even though the days seem to last forever. 2 years and 2 weeks to go...
Peace and Love,
Robin

Ladrones

Now the news of the week... so yesterday I was robbed on the bus to Antigua. There are 100 people on these buses and I was crammed up against everyone and had an over the shoulder small bag on. The crappiest part was that this day of all days I was taking the rest of my american dollars to go exchange them so whoever took my stuff now owns the most amazing camera I´ve ever had and $100 american dollars. I hate my life. Not really, but I just keep replaying it, I feel so stupid for not noticing. I think I can ever remember feeling something and thinking it was nothing just because there were so many people. I was pretty sad about it yesterday but I´m trying to brush it off because it was bound to happen sometime. I really did like that camera... well now I have to report it to the Peace Corps but I don´t think they can really do much. The money was for my site visit this coming week, aparently the volunteer there wants to sell me all his stuff (a frig, table, chairs, pots, bed, everything) for Q1,000 which is a pretty great deal, so now I just have to work out something with Peace Corp maybe loaning me the money in advance of my next payment. Not too much of a problem its just crappy that it was the last of my cash.
Tomorrow I meet my counterpart which I´m excited about, and I can´t wait to visit my site. Drew (the volunteer I´m replacing) has a lot planned and only had good things to say about the site.
I played basketball today, which was awesome becuase it was finally semi-temperate and no rain. We play pick-up games in the park, normally not too many girls play, but Marisha went with my this time. I´m not the greatest but better than even some of the guys, its easier since their all short. It was nice to get some excercise and meet some more people. I´m going to be pretty sad to leave here, I am finally feeling somewhat comfortable although my spanish still has a long way to go.
ok, nada mas for now.
Peace and Love, especially to all those purse stealers....
Robin

Free time out the window

Ok so I thought I was going to have all this free time, but obviously not. So I want to give some links to the history of Guatemala to better understand whats going on, since it seems I´ll never have time to write it all out myself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala is generally an overall good place to start. Read the 1944 to present section, but it leaves out some important details about the overthrow of the Guatemalan government with a planed assassination performed by the United States Government in connection with a major fruit company and executive conflicts. It also doesn´t really get at the heart of what the Civil war here was really like.
The war was not very long ago and the nations final Peace Accords were in 1996, and the laws that are now in effect weren´t written and approved until 2002. There is still a lot of corruption in the local and national government and a general consenus of distrust among all the people.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/guatemala.htm
This one is a lot better, and more detailed. Please send me your comments on what you think and any other websites that could be helpful.

The peace corps has articles as well which I´ll try to get a hold of and post.

Peace and Love,
Robin

The past week

Sorry its been so long since I've posted but I have been out of town for a week. Here's the low down on whats happened so far: (its long)

Last Saturday before we left for our Field Based Training, which I'll get to later, a lot of the volunteers met up to go to Tecpan and visit a ruin site called Iximche. According to the park police we have to pay Q50 if were tourists, but we convinced him that were volunteers that live here so locals only have to pay Q5! This is the general problem with every tourist site, gringos pay more always. Anyway, the ruins were very pretty and the grounds were kept up really nice. We had a picnic lunch there, and just hung out. It was a beautiful day and didn't even rain! After I got back from that I got to go to an art show opening for a Guatemalan Artist at La Casa de Santo Domingo, which I had talked about earlier and is probably one of the most beautiful places I've seen. There are some pictures uploaded on my webshots of it at night and the reception. It was beautiful, the artist had died and his whole family was there. I left the poster at home so I don't remember his name, but he did very progressive impressionistic work for the early 20th century that he worked in. The colors were amazing, as they tend to be in Guatemalan art and I was really impressed with the show.

The next day we left for FBT, which is were all the people in my training program (Municipal Development) go to visit volunteers in their sites and learn about how they live and what their working on. This really helped me realize the challenges I'm going to face and what I'm actually going to be doing, which is still slightly vague and I want to talk more about that in another post. We visited many places including: Huehuetenango, Malacatancito, Chaintla, San Sebastian, La Democracia, San Antonio Huista, San Carlos Sija, and Xela. Mostly we talked to the planning office or womens office in each town with the volunteer.

On Wednesday we actually gave a charla (or training presentation) to a group of women in San Sebastian about Leadership because women here are very supressed and generally don't think they can be leaders or don't know how. The charla went well, but the women didn't speak spanish which was super difficult. Instead they spoke Mum, which is one of the 22 indigenious languages here in Guatemala. So we had to speak very clearly, simply, and slowly so that the ones that spoke both could then translate for the rest of the women. It was each town paired with a small group of about 6 women which frequently just went off speaking mum to each other so that we couldn't understand them. Frustrating, but a reality of what we will be dealing with because many of the aldeas (small parimeter communities) only speak in an indigenious language and many don't read or write, so our presentations have to be very hands on and oral. Aside from all the work, on Friday we excitedly got to watch the debates at a restaurant in Xela (an awesome city in Queztaltenango) with the Democrats Abroad group formed there. Afterwards we went salsa dancing for my Birthday. I really had a great time, it was a lot of fun and our whole group gets along really well. There are pictures of this on webshots as well.

My birthday was spent mostly in the car driving back, with bad reception and a headache, but thank you to everyone who tried to call and wish me happy birthday! That night I was more than happy to have a calm night at home and get some well needed sleep in a bed that wasn't hard/lumpy/or right next to a highway.

Sunday was great though because although we had work to do in the morning, volunteers and friends came over to the house in the afternoon for a small collaborative bday dinner and pinata bashing. It was Octavio's bday on Sunday and mine on Saturday so all his friends were there too, we watched Superbad (the only movie that I brought), made a chocolate strawberry cake, fought with a giant Elmo pinata, and had a muy ricco sena (dinner). Quinn, Lorba, Marisha, David, Johnny, and Nicole all came and although they had to leave by 6:30 because they all have curfews at our very strict houses, it was great to celebrate with them. My host niece got me a beautiful makeup bag that says Guatemala on it, and I got in the mail today the all the nail polish/tools from my mom to counter my semi-rustic living here.

Today is Monday and I'm in the Training Center as we are most mondays. This next week is going to be pretty low key for me since I only have Spanish classes, but most other people are going to live and visit with other volunteers aroudn the country this week but my language level is too low. But its good because I do need the extra help and hopefully now I'll have time to write about all the other things you want to know about like my job, and the government here, and maybe some history of Guatemala, and lots more.

Pics at: http://community.webshots.com/album/567512119xwaNDB

Peace and Love,

Robin

You have mail!

<- (My co-volunteers making peanut butter)

Today was better than any birthday ever because I finally got mail. 5 letters and a big box that is going to suck to bring on the bus but its cool. I also got strawberry cake with chocolate icing that John, another volunteer, made for his host sisters birthday after I suggested how awesome it was. It was probably the best day ever. There were also Cooler Ranch Doritos in the box, which might last for approximently 2 days, haha. One thing that I've learned here is that I came searching to find a place where I could shed all the stuff in life that I didn't need, but I've found that a basic need is having some of the things around you that you really love and enjoy, and without them, to completely remove yourself from them wont' make you happy either. I think there are things in life that are extra, and possibly unessicary for survival but that make you more comfortable and are important to hold on to. Doing without things always makes us appreciate what we have, and thats part of why working with the people here is so rewarding. They do without things and therefor appreciate the work we do and who we are, more for it. This is another part of why I chose to be here, and probably one of the most gratifying things is the friendship and kindness of host country nationals. Keep sending letters, because possibly in another 4 weeks I'll have a day like this again.

Peace and Love.

PS I put more photos on webshots, check it out.

http://community.webshots.com/album/567051602wyzxus

Independenzia

My weekend was pretty awesome. Saturday morning we had a Mayan ceremony at the PC center and in the afternoon I headed out to the beach. But first we had to stop in Chimaltenango for a basketball game that Cesar, the oldest brother, and other amigos played in. San Bartolo won, which was cool, but they don´t really have too much support here for basketball, not like soccer. It was in a gymnasium similar to the one at my high school, but with a concrete floor. After the game, it rained almost the whole way to Montericco. Right before you get there we had to cross a river on these barges, which are really just planks of wood. We drove the car onto it and in the night coasted down the river for about 20 minutes to the next port. The night was beautiful there, much warmer and the water is so nice. Kind of reminds me of home, especially when on the river. The beach there is greyish black, and the pacific ocean is really strong. All guatemalan women wear tshirts and shorts to go swimming, very conservative, and I did the same. Which means I have sand in every part of my shorts and shirt. The men wear whatever, their underwear, I dunno, haha. They also go really early in the morning, like around 5am because they don´t like the heat. Noone brings towels and noone lays out in the sun. I was the only gringo I saw for a while until we went to eat dinner, and I saw a table of about 10 american girls, which I think were as equally shocked to see me as I was to see them. We returned back Sunday and on the way stopped in Antigua and followed our torch procession all the way to San Bartolo. So essentially I was in their independence parade, which was a little akward since I´m obviously not a guatemalteca. It was fun though, and today has been mostly a day of rest and watching more parades with the school bands, majorettes, and lots of flags. I have some pictures of the beach but my camera got caught up in a wave and didn´t start working again till I got all the sand out of it this afternoon. BTW the olympus that I have truely is waterproof and shockproof, I´ve tested it against the Pacific. It´s not so sand proof though so watch out for that.
Thanks for all the support I get through the blog. I really enjoy your comments, it means at least someone is reading this thing.
Peace and Love.
Robin

9/11 and 9/15

So this week has been interesting because of the history of the US with 9/11 was discussed with me several times. Guatemalans are well aware of this event, and are curious about american sentiment. Its pretty interesting because it also coincides with Guatemala's Independence Day, which is 9/15 (Monday). This is a very important holiday here, and the celebrations have already begun with a torch run, and festivals all over. We were guest judges for the school yesterday, each grade makes a presentation with maps and flags and monuments to guatemala and their culture. It was really awesome, and a tough decision, they go all out with candles, food, water, lights, glitter, the works. 2nd grade class B won, in case you were wondering. For the holiday, lots of families go on vacation and I think I'm going with my family to Mono Ricco (sp?), which is a beach near by. Finally somewhere that's hot, and hopefully no rain. My family got really sick this week, Don Cesar and Octavio. I don't know what it was but I was fine and so was Dona Dora. But they were both laid out for the count, aparently they are feeling better today though so hopefully our trip is still on. More pictures to come.
PS. I miss fall... send me pictures of the leaves.
Peace and Love.

Today was so nice and sunny....

but now its raining, really hard actually so I don´t know how long the internet is going to be up for because the power keeps going out. Saturday was interesting because we had a site exchange day where PC volunteers in Aloetenango came to our town then we went there. Aloetenango is a lot bigger than San Bartolome, and their houses are a little nicer. While we were there we made peanut butter and jelly from scratch which was awesome and I can´t wait to eat it on Monday at the training center with everyone. Its really a lot easier than I thought it would be, the longest part was peeling 5 pounds of peanuts, I would really suggest buying them de-shelled. The jam is strawberry and smells like heaven. That afternoon I got back a little late so I just chilled upstairs in my house listening to some rap cds that I think are my sisters from home and played spider solitare and drew. I´m borrowing a book about the Cuban War Poster Art from another volunteer, and have recently been interested in learning how to draw more mayan art, but possibly incorporating these pop art symbols as well. Today I was supposed to do a lot of homework but instead went to Guatemala city to the mall. The malls here are nicer than some of our malls, but of course thats only in the city. I have some more pictures uploaded on webshots. The link is: http://community.webshots.com/album/566485335iDGlpQ
Peace and Love.

More Rain

Ok not to get too depressive about the rain, but seriously, all day today. This morning was 6 more hours with Patricia and lots of Spanish, and then a meeting with the director at my house just to check up on everything. Overall pretty good. My family made this awesome hot tea out of fresh fruit which was probably the highlight. I also bought gum at a tienda, which is a fiet because I asked in spanish, haha. Today is my moms birthday, so just want to shout out to her that I miss her very much and wish I could tell her face to face. Maybe I can buy some more gum and send that home as a present :P
Tomorrow a "site exchange" so the volunteers from Alhuetengango are coming here to visit us and then we´re going there to visit them. I hear Alhuetenango is at the base of a Volcano and warm so I´m pretty excited about that.
Still working on uploading pìctures, and now on the lookout for a WAWA...

Peace and Love.

Volcano Weekend

Ok, so this weekend was pretty awesome every time it wasn´t raining, which wasn´t that often but good enough. If you ever go to Antigua, Guatemala you HAVE to visit the Casa de Santa Domingo. It is this amazing museum and old archeological ruin of a monestary from the colonial period. I could definately spend many more hours there, but maybe thats just me because I salivate over art and architecture. Saturday was pretty chill but nice too. I have Spanish class and cried to my teacher that I hate the Casa de Waffles that we meet to have class at so then we went to my house which is soooo much better. That afternoon I went out to lunch with the fam´ because it was Don Cesar´s birthday on Friday. After that, another birthday party, which it began raining in the middle of so that cut it short.
Now for the good stuff, the volcano. Volcano Pacaya is awesome, not too bad of a hike either. It was about 2 hours up and maybe an hour down. You don´t go all the way to the top of the crater but you do get to see where there is a bunch of lava pouring out of. Maybe I can figure out how to get pictures up on this thing. The lava flows very slowly and surrounding the entire volcano is dark black sand, which is pretty aweful to walk on. The lava is super bright though, and we took marshmallows and crackers up with us and roasted them on the lava (which ignited them almost immediately). They were soo good. Then it started raining again. haha. Always.
Monday was a PC holiday, as it was for all you back in the states, which means we got to visit the capital city with our Spanish teachers (this time Oscar, my old spanish teacher went). The city is busy and very developed. We saw the American embassy and walked over to the hospital, which is not a pretty site and I never want to have to go to. Then back to the two malls they have which are sooo American inside I almost forgot I was in Guatemala which was kinda cool for a little while. I finally bought a jacket, which I´ve needed for a while and some long-sleeve shirts. Tomorrow I´m working with the Municipialidad to find out more about our jobs here. I still haven´t received any mail so I´m not sure how thats gonna work.
More tomorrow, eventually I´ll get to it all.

Robin

One day I´ll change the world?

Friday, August 29, 2008

I feel lucky if I can even change myself here, haha. To keep a little update so far I´ve been to 3 more Birthday parties for little kids, and my host dad´s birthday is tomorrow. I bought him purple murracos (sp?) they are awesome and I hope he thinks it funny, otherwise he´ll just think I´m that ¨weird american¨which I guess is fine too. My language skills are better, but still very basic. I think today I talked about ghosts with my family at breakfast and then travelled up these tiny windy roads to a village to meet a current volunteer in her site with some people from my training group. The volunteer lives in a pretty awesome 2 bedroom apartment, not really lavish but doable and she has to spend a 1/3 of her monthly allowance on it! yikes, good thing food is cheap here. On the ride there I got car sick and saw many sweatshops, chicken farms, and pig slaughter houses, it was pretty naseating to say the least. So far I still have yet to find Cooler Ranch Doritos, they have 3 other flavors, but not Cooler Ranch... I will continue my search.

Later.
Robin

Hola and Contact Info

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Hola Amigos!

The Guate is really pretty, there are mountains and volcanos and many friendly people. I´m living with a family in San Bartolome that owns a tienda. So far I´ve played Uno, watched kids movies in Spanish, gone to a first baptism party, and attended an evangelical church. This first 3 months is training and so each say I either go to the main training center about 30 minutes away or I have language classes at 8am each day for 4 hours then a lot of homework.

Letters, emails, and phone calls and much appreciated. You can contact me at:
Robin Schick - Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 66
Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepequez
03001
Guatemala, Centro America

and my number is 502-4051-2342

Stay in touch